Report: VW planning to terminate its commercial vehicles partnership with Daimler

Volkswagen plans to put an end to its commercial vehicles partnership with Daimler as it wants closer ties with its truck subsidiary MAN.

According to a report from Reuters, which cited a person familiar with the plans, Volkswagen has started to develop by itself a follow-up model of the Crafter van, which is currently built by Daimler. The two companies have a collaboration deal that expires in 2016, with both the VW Crafter and the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans being built by Daimler.

“VW’s commercial vehicles unit has been clearly mandated to develop a Crafter successor model,” the unnamed source told Reuters. Daimler said in September it would contact Volkswagen to see whether the partnership could be extended and offered to include Renault-Nissan.

In 2012, Daimler and Nissan agreed on a deal on trucks under which Daimler’s Japanese truck unit Mitsubishi Fuso will supply the Fuso Canter light truck to Nissan, with Nissan to make the Atlas F24 truck available to Fuso in exchange.

Volkswagen’s powerful chairman Ferdinand Piech has said in the past he would favor truckmaker MAN over Daimler as van alliance partner. VW holds more than 75 percent of MAN’s shares.